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Thursday, January 23, 2014

$1.7 Million missing from murdered Menachem Stark’s bank account

Bank statements for a firm owned by slain Brooklyn
businessman Menachem Stark appeared to have been tampered with to conceal the
"diversion" of more than $1.7 million from the company's accounts, a bankruptcy
trustee said Wednesday in court papers.

Jonathan Flaxer, who was appointed last week as trustee in
the bankruptcy case of South Side House LLC, Stark's real estate company, also
said that a rent security account at one of the company's businesses was
virtually empty, containing only $3,500 when it should have in excess of
$200,000 on deposit, court records stated.

The low balance in the security account has given reason to
believe "that further monies have been misappropriated," Flaxer said.
South Side filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009.

In his search for the money, Flaxer has subpoenaed Stark's
business partner Israel Perlmutter, Stark's wife and others, court records
indicated. A hearing on the subpoenas is scheduled for Thursday in Brooklyn
federal bankruptcy court.

There is no allegation in the bankruptcy case that
Perlmutter, Stark's widow or anyone Flaxer is seeking to question was involved
in any wrongdoing or knew of the alleged misappropriation.

However, Perlmutter intends to assert his Fifth Amendment
privilege against self-incrimination during any questioning by the trustee
about the bank accounts, court records stated. Henry Mazurek, who is
representing Perlmutter in connection with the police investigation of Stark's
death, didn't return a telephone call for comment Wednesday but has said in the
past that his client has cooperated with detectives and was told he was not a suspect.

Stark, 39, was abducted by at least two people on Jan. 2
outside his office in Williamsburg. His partly burned body was found the next
day in a commercial trash bin in Great Neck, police said.

Family friends said Stark was suffocated.The NYPD is pursuing
several theories in the case, including whether Stark, who was facing mounting
financial pressures, borrowed money from criminals.

A law enforcement official briefed on the case said
detectives also wanted to talk with Stark's former employees and vendors.